Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month of May 2021 - Lizzie Lee
Lizzie Lee is Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month for May 2021
River Lee Hotel
Monday June 14th 2021
Lizzie Lee, Leevale AC, is Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month for May 2021 - Photo: Tony O'Connell Photography
The award was presented to Lizzie at a function at the River Lee hotel, on Monday June 14th 2021
Lizzie Lee with sponsors and representatives from Cork City Sports - Photo: Tony O'Connell Photography
The Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month Award is sponsored by 96FM/C103FM, The Echo, The River Lee, Cork Crystal and Leisureworld
Cork City Sports - Awards Archive
Tony O'Connell and Lizzie Lee
The Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month of May 2021 is Lizzie Lee, Leevale AC - Photo: Tony O'Connell Photography
Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month - May 2021 - Award Citation
Lizzie Lee (Leevale AC) is the May recipient of the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month.
The Cork City Sports Athlete for the month of May goes to Lizzie Lee (Leevale AC). At a specially arranged Micro Meet for Irish elite athletes, at the MTU track, Lizzie won the 10,000m event in a time of 34:14.26. Subsequently she was selected as the sole female Irish representative for the European Cup in Birmingham.
Lizzie Lee and her father Gearóid Ó Laoi - Photo: Gearóid Ó Laoi
Excerpt from Article by John Walshe
CORK CITY SPORTS ATHLETICS PERSON OF THE MONTH AWARD
A multi-winner of the award in the past, Leevale’s Lizzie Lee is the Cork City Sports Athletics Person of the Month for May.
At a specially arranged Micro Meet for Irish elite athletes at the MTU track, Lizzie – in her only her second 10,000m on the track – covered the 25 laps in a time of 34:14.26. This gave her selection as the sole female Irish representative over the same distance for the European Cup in Birmingham.
“I honestly thought my days of awards and international vests were over, so I’m absolutely delighted,” said Lizzie at the award ceremony in The River Lee Hotel. “I must put my hand up in the air to Athletics Ireland and to the likes of Ian O’Sullivan in MTU, Donal Murnane, Ina Killeen and Liam O’Brien for putting the meet on. When you have the likes of that behind you in Cork, it’s something you don’t get anywhere else, and so it all fell together.”
The object was to run 82-second laps and this she did in the lashing rain, her finishing time of 34:12.26 well inside the standard and giving her 25 seconds to spare over Meghan Ryan of DSD. Lizzie then went to Birmingham where she recorded a personal best of 33:04.50 for 17th place in the star-studded field. “It was amazing pulling on that Irish singlet again. I’m now going on 11 years as a senior international athlete, I’m 41 with three small kids and I’m standing on start line with the best in Europe.”
One thing that Lizzie appreciated during the pandemic was the pure joy and love of running. “With three small kids and a husband working from home, to get out and run for 10 miles first thing in the morning just kind of saved my head for the day.”
Six years ago, Lizzie captained the Irish team to the bronze medals at the European Cross-Country and with the re-scheduled championships set for Santry this December, it’s something that’s already in her sights. “I would run over hot coals in the National C-C to make the team, Leevale women will be going for four-in-a-row to win the club title and that puts fire in my belly.
“But the competition to get on that [Irish] team is going to be insane, they’ll all going to want to run in Dublin but that will be the head-down goal and we’ll see what happens.”
Wha...??? .....2M! This is 2M!!
Trevor Welch, 96FM interviewing Lizzie Lee - Photo: Gearóid Ó Laoi
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